Institutional reform set to advance rural vitalization

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has taken on more duties in the latest State Council institutional reform, including overseeing strategic agricultural research and earmarking funds to finance the country's rural vitalization drive.

The changes have worked to centralize administration of sannong — an official term referring to agriculture, rural areas and farmers — under one agency. The reform is intended to enable better execution of the country's rural vitalization plan and to curb bureaucracy, said Lei Ming, deputy director of Peking University's Institute on Poverty Research.

Compared with the anti-poverty drive, "rural vitalization is a more systematic undertaking, which covers a wide range of areas such as fostering rural industries, optimizing governance and formulating policies", he said. "Putting all such work under one governing body helps form a stronger resultant force."